OSHANA governor Elia Irimari has called on local business people to come on board and offer the much needed financial support to complete the outstanding renovations for the region to successfully host the 19th edition of Newspaper Cup.
The event is scheduled to take place during Easter weekend from 10-13th April 2020 under the theme: ‘Enhancing Pristine Sport Environment’.
Irimari who also doubles as the chairperson of the local organising committee made the remarks on Tuesday during a media briefing at Oshakati Independence Stadium where the event will be hosted. Standard Bank Namibia is the main sponsor of the event and has injected N$1 million into it.
He said while they are happy with the progress made so far on the renovations of the soccer pitch and netball courts which cost close to N$1 million, they still have the final touch ups to do. These renovations were funded by the Oshakati Town Council.
Irimari said they started preparations in May last year and have so far managed to improve the soccer pitch at the stadium, which was in a very bad condition. He said they also managed to get the old netball court renovated and also built a new netball court, all this with the major assistance from the Namibian Correctional Services which provided manpower, and funds from the Oshakati municipality.
“Minor renovations are still expected at the pavilions, toilets at the stadium as well as the school hostels. For this reason, we are calling on local businesses to come on board and offer the much needed financial support,” Irimari stressed.
He called on Oshana residents to ensure that the event is a success and that they should note that the cup not only brings sport lovers together but: “It is an opportunity for our business community to score margin from the usual profit when no activity is taking place. Hence the call for all economic sectors in our region to prepare and take full advantage of the event”.
Irimari said this is also a chance for young people to meet and network through sports.
‘s regional representative Jermaine Tjongarero said the newspaper will “aggressively start marketing the event as from next week Monday”.
Newspaper Cup is an annual youth sports event that aims to promote sports development in all spheres of the country.
The Oshana region won the cup twice in 2003 and 2016 and met all the requirements for hosting the cup.
As part of the criteria to host Newspaper Cup, the host town must have a stadium with an artificial or natural grass field, with a minimum capacity of 2 000 people and suitable lighting for night games.
